If you have rooted your Android device, and installed a custom recovery on it, you are no doubt familiar with the process of flashing zip files through CWM, or TWRP or whatever your custom recovery of choice is. The recovery mode is essentially the interface though which most things like custom ROMs, updates, mods can be flashed on to your device. While a custom recovery is a must-have tool if you want to get the most out of your rooted device, using it can quickly become cumbersome due to the fact that you need to navigate through your internal/external storage to be able to find the file that you need to flash.
This may not be a big deal if you have a touch-based recovery like CWM Touch or TWRP, but can be pretty irritating as well as time consuming if yo have to use the physical buttons to navigate and flash zips. XDA member beerbong has found just the solution for this pesky problem and has released a nifty tool called ZipInstaller which makes installing zip files a breeze. ZipInstaller functions as a preparatory front-end for the recovery, and allows you to select the zip files you want to flash, and queue them up before you actually proceed to recovery mode and flash them. Here’s the complete list of features available in the app:
Features
– Install as much zips you want in a row (they are added to a list and then you click the “install” button). Just zips from internal sdcard.
– Add zips directly from a file manager through the send/share menu.
– Click on the zips added to see it’s properties or remove it from the list.
– You can define the recovery and the sdcard mount point name in the menu (default is CWM-based – emmc).
– If you add a zip that was already added, it goes down to the last position.
– Reorder the list using drag and drop.
– Save and load your list.
– Download zips and add them to the list
– Backup, restore and delete backup.
– Check MD5 sum (manually or automatically through *.md5sum)
– Application automatic updates
– Open source!
Using ZipInstaller is a pretty straightforward affair. Download and install the app on your device, launch it, tap the Add a zip to the list option to launch your default file manager app, and then select the zip you ant flashed. If you want to flash multiple zips, either repeat the selection or multiple-select the files you need added. and then tap the Install Now option. At this point you can specify any other pre-flashing actions you need performed like backup, or cache wipe/dalvik wipe , before it reboots to recovery and flashes the selected zips.
So if you’re looking for a convenient and easy way to flash zips through recovery, and do not want to spend any more time offline than you absolutely have to, this is an extremely useful app. And if you are flashaholic, this should also give those volume keys and the power button some much needed rest. Go ahead and try ZipInstaller, and tell us how you like it in comments below.